The government will ask France to hand over confidential information about the kickback and murder scandal involving Taiwan's 1991 purchase of Lafayette-class frigates, in exchange for settling out of court a massive lawsuit related to the scandal, a local newspaper reported yesterday.
In 2003 the Taiwanese navy filed a suit in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris against France Thomson-CSF (now known as Thales), demanding that the firm return US$99 million -- an amount the Navy claims is equivalent to the kickbacks the company received during the purchase of six frigates from France.
Members of a special prosecutorial panel investigating the high-profile scandal told the Chinese-language newspaper the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) that probes had revealed evidence of irregularities in the deal, and public pressure was mounting on the French government to resolve the scandal. Since Taiwan seemed likely to win the lawsuit against Thales, the French government has softened its attitude and now hopes to negotiate a settlement with Taiwan out of court, the panel members said in the report.
The panel members told the Liberty Times they would like to ask the French government to declassify a confidential archive about the warships deal as a conditions for settling the suit.
The French government has four times rejected French judges' requests to declassify the confidential archive, citing national security.
Meanwhile, Tu Cheng Chun-chu (
"Tu will return to Taiwan tonight and she is planning to say something of importance about the scandal, which might astonish Taiwan, China and France," he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (
In reaction to the story run by the Liberty Times yesterday that said that there had been progress in the case in recent days, Ker said yesterday that the Lafayette scandal was the largest scandal in Taiwan's history and it was imperative that the case be resolved.
"As far as I know, France has found a lot of new evidence and its decoding of this case is beyond our imagination. But recently, people in Taiwan have paid too much attention to the corruption scandal involving President Chen Shui-bian's (
In response to Ker, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Pan Wei-kang said that the DPP's was bringing up the Lafayette scandal at this time in order to shift the focus away from the government's recent scandals and to try to influence the year-end Taipei mayoral election.
Pan referred to the impact of the scandal on the KMT's Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Long-bin (
"We also hope that the Lafayette scandal will be cleared up as soon as possible, but the government shouldn't regard the investigation into the scandal as a means to protect itself and attack opposition parties," Pan said.
But Ker later dismissed such accusations, saying they were "immoral."
Also yesterday, People First Party Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) appealed to the government to cooperate with the French government to clear up the scandal.
"We often hear information leaked from the government that it has made a breakthrough in the investigation, but then that turns out not to be the case," Chang said. "We hope the information isn't false again this time."
According to the Liberty Times report, the panel said that declassifying the French archive could help it to come up with a comprehensive list of Taiwanese officials suspected of involvement in the kickback scandal.
In April, Thales filed a lawsuit demanding US$200 million in compensation from the navy for the alleged damage inflicted on the company's reputation by allegations of massive corruption in the purchase deal.
Thales insist there were no kickbacks involved in the deal, and says that Taiwanese judicial authorities have not yet produced evidence to back up allegations of corruption.
A special prosecutorial panel investigating the high-profile kickback scandal has scrutinized a large number of Swiss court files believed to be related to the kickback scandal.
The files were released by the Swiss government in November last year.
They include information about 46 bank accounts in the name of Andrew Wang (
The files also include details on a number of previously unexposed overseas bank accounts related to the US$2.8 billion Lafayette deal, as well as information about account transactions.
But the panel has not revealed what criminal evidence they have found in the files.
Andrew Wang fled the country following the death of navy Captain Yin, who was murdered in late 1993. Yin is widely believed to have been about to blow the whistle on colleagues who were taking kickbacks from the deal.
Wang has been charged in absentia with murder, corruption, money laundering and fraud.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS